5 Things You Need To Know About the French Subjunctive

French subjunctive? What is it?? I can almost see the question marks hovering around your head right now. But no worries, this article will strive to replace those question marks with a huge light bulb that will make you go...

To make things a lot easier for you, I have listed down five things that you need to know about the French subjunctive.

1. What exactly is the French subjunctive?

The subjunctive is a grammatical mood which is found in different languages including English and French. When it comes to frequency of usage, however, it is so much more widely used in French than in English.

The subjunctive is used to express varied states of unreality or uncertainty like some kind of judgment, wish, possibility, opinion, doubt, emotion, or something that has not occurred yet.

You need to remember two things when it comes to what the subjunctive means:

If it doesn't fall into either category, you usually make use of the indicative mood.

There is no future tense usage of the subjunctive, only past and present. If it is set to happen in the future, the present tense is being used.

2. The French Subjunctive's English Counterpart

I have mentioned that the English subjunctive is not used as often as in French, but we use it in everyday modern English. This happens when we say “If I were you”,“It is important that you stop to read the signs”, and similar subjective statements.

The subjunctive often appears in subordinate clauses especially that-clauses.

More examples:

Is it really necessary that we stop to read each and every sign?”

He suggested that you continue with your noble path.

3. Where and when to use the French subjunctive

In French, we use the subjunctive after certain words and conjunctions that have two parts and two different subjects.

5. The Irregulars

Unfortunately, in grammar just as in life, there is no way to avoid the irregular, rule-breaking few. And there's nothing else we could do about these but to tolerate them while being wary of them at the same time.

Here are the irregular verbs in the subjunctive.

Verb

aller

avoir

devoir

dire

être

Meaning

to go

to have

to have to, must

to say, to tell

to be

Je

aille

aie

doive

dise

sois

Tu

ailles

aies

doives

dises

sois

Il/Elle/On

aille

ait

doive

dise

soit

Nous

allions

ayons

devions

dlsions

soyons

Vous

alliez

ayez

deviez

disiez

soyez

Ils/Elles

aillent

aient

doivent

disent

soient

Verb

faire

pouvoir

prendre

savoir

venir

vouloir

Meaning

to do, to make

to be able to, can

to take

to know

to come

to want to

Je

fasse

puisse

prenne

sache

vienne

veuille

Tu

fasses

puisses

prennes

saches

viennes

veullles

Il/Elle/On

fasse

puisse

prenne

sache

vienne

veuille

Nous

fassions

puissions

prenions

sachions

venions

voulions

Vous

fassiez

puissiez

preniez

sachiez

veniez

vouliez

Ils/Elles

fassent

puissent

prennent

sachent

viennent

veuillent

Examples source: Collins Easy Learning French Grammar

So with that, we end our lesson in the French subjunctive.

But wait!!!

Before you go, here are a few key points to wrap up our lesson.

Quick Recap

The subjunctive is used to express varied states of unreality or uncertainty like some kind of judgment, wish, possibility, opinion, doubt, emotion, or something that has not occurred yet.

The subjunctive appears after certain words and conjunctions that have two parts and two different subjects. It is also found after expressions that start with il.

The verb stem for the subjunctive is the same as the stem for present tense.

Verbs that end in -er and -re have the same endings: -e, -es, -e, -ions, -iez, -ent.

Verbs that end in -ir have the following endings in the subjunctive mood: -isse, -isses, -isse, -issions, -issiez, -issent.

If you need clarifications about this topic, do not hesitate to leave a message in the comments section.

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Frederic Bibard is the founder of Talk in French, a company that helps french learners to practice and improve their french. Macaron addict. Jacques Audiard fan. You can contact him on Twitter and Google +